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Smoking avatars and online games: how big tobacco targets young people in the metaverse

⁨206⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Davriellelouna@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jul/22/avatar-smokes-big-tobacco-children-metaverse-cigarettes-vapes-virtual-regulation-health

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Comments

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  • spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    smuggled into virtual spaces

    Words don’t mean anything anymore.

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    • HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      They're so desperate to make the real-life Snowcrash, Ready Player One, Matrix, they haven't even acknowledged how hard metaverse flopped. They can't stand the idea that what they really made was Worse Second Life 30 Years Later.

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      • spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Apparently it mostly appeals to young children, or maybe people pretending to be young children.

        more than half of the metaverse’s active users are aged 13 and below.

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        • -> View More Comments
    • dumbass@quokk.au ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      The Meta prison purse®™

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    • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      The things being smuggled are ideas. “beyond the reach of regulators,” see? It’s the advertisement nature of what’s being done here.

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      • spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Nothing is being ‘smuggled’.

        They are just advertising. Regular old advertising which should have the same rules applied as any other advertising.

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        • -> View More Comments
  • const_void@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Bigger news to me is that people are using the metaverse.

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    • FLP22012005@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Do they have legs yet? Did they have cigarettes before they had legs?

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      • ZeffSyde@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        The avatars smoked so we could walk.

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    • capuccino@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      maybe making news of problems that are “happening” in there are a way to, indirectly, trying to tell you “people is using this!! we are not wasted money!! we are relevant!!”

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    • Honytawk@feddit.nl ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I’m surprised it still existsted

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  • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    People use the Metaverse?

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  • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Both young people in the metaverse?

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    • owlboy@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      lol. Thats the thing. Adults talk shit about it. But it’s mostly the younger generations that are active in VR.

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    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      people in the zuckerborg-verse.

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  • owlboy@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    lol what? I’ve been using VRChat for almost 10 years and I’ve seen maybe 4-5 people with avatars that smoke.

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  • ImmersiveMatthew@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Yeah. I have had a real issue with the kids smoking in my Metaverse based VR app. /s

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  • capuccino@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Image

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